By Patrick Cant Racing game expert Fans of racing games have a choice to make. (Unless you opt for buying both of these games, of course). Dirt 2 is all things off-road: rally, Baja, solo vehicle, multi-car chaos, etc. Need… Continue Reading →

Fans of racing games have a choice to make. (Unless you opt for buying both of these games, of course).Dirt 2 is all things off-road: rally, Baja, solo vehicle, multi-car chaos, etc. Need For Speed: Shift is all things pavement: world-famous courses, exciting sense of speed, great wrecks, etc.

They’re both pretty good games, but one comes out on top in the end.

Dirt 2 is the newest version of what used to be known as Colin McRae Rally. In fact, as an homage to the series and the late McRae, when your character begins his journey to off-road glory, he’s driving an old McRae rally car.

The series, starting with the first Dirt, embraces all things off-road and four-wheeled. There are true rally stages, just you against the clock with a co-driver shouting out corner instructions, and these are great. The sense of speed and impending danger are palpable and the graphics are fantastic.

In addition, the tour includes Trail Blazer, Raid, Landrush and Rallycross modes, as well as a couple “special modes,” like Gatecrasher, Last Man Standing and Domination.
This game doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it does what it does very well. Graphics are crisp, audio is fantastic (both music and engine sounds) and the gameplay is exciting. The cars slide around nicely and different vehicles react as they should.

Dirt 2 ends up being a giant toybox, once you open up enough levels and buy a few cars. There is rudimentary tuning function (you have to upgrade the cars to compete in higher levels) but it’s more about getting dirty as quickly as possible, not spending time in the garage, or in this case your trailer, which is your home base for all racing in Dirt 2.

You’ve got a big map in the trailer. Each area (Baja, London, Morocco, Croatia, etc. …) has a variety of races, and you open more areas and races as you progress.
There’s plenty of racing of many varieties to keep you entertained for a long time, plus you can go online and race against as many as seven other players.

On the other hand, Need for Speed: Shift is a significant departure for the NFS series. No cops, no city streets, no dodging traffic. Shift is definitely in Gran Turismo territory. You race on real tracks, against other race cars. You can upgrade and tune your rides, which you will need to do to climb up the tiers in the game. Online play will supprt up to eight players.

Your goal is to compete in the top tour, and you need to work your way up four tiers to get there. So grab your controller and get cracking.
In the same way that Gran Turismo keeps you interested with that “one more race” feeling until 4 in the morning, Shift compels you to keep going. Race after race, it’s interesting, varied enough to keep you from getting bored and white-knuckle exciting.

In cockpit mode, your favorite tracks become challenging again as you have to re-learn all your braking points. In addition, Shift does a neat trick: As you accelerate, the camera shifts back, as if your head’s being pushed into the headrest. When you jam on the brakes, the camera moves forward, just like your head would.
Also, when you’re on a long straightaway (some sections of the Nurburgring are good for this), and you’re really pushing the car, everything but the windshield view gets softer, as if you’re focusing so hard on the road, everything else falls away.

NFS: Shift is a great game, but it has an Achilles heel: load times. Holy (creative expletive deleted) those are some long load times. The “betcha can’t eat just one” quaity of the racing is stopped almost dead in its tracks by the brutal waiting.

The game looks great, and the cars handle wonderfully (the drifting levels are quite fun and challenging), but the load times are almost inexcusable.
I am a fan of racing games like Shift. The real-world tracks (Laguna Seca, Spa, Nurburgring, etc…) and sweet rides are right in my sweet spot. But the edge clearly goes to Dirt 2. The muddy, crazy, exciting game hits all the right notes. Shift comes close, but the load times disrupt the experience too much.